Level 4 Human in a Ruined World - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 39 12. Strange World (3)

Jang Chun-yong16, 1st Generation, Defense 96 times.

As soon as the Mungyeong First Sword’s information was revealed, Young-woo felt the heat rising inside the car.

This was because Yoon-ho in the passenger seat spoke up with a rather aggressive tone.

“1st Generation? Doesn’t that mean he’s incredibly strong?”

Then Myeong-ho, gripping the steering wheel while watching the road ahead, answered.

“Absolutely. It would be best not to enter downtown if possible.”

It wasn’t simply expressing concern, but an attitude of devising countermeasures.

Even Yoon-ho was emanating an aura suggesting he wouldn’t hesitate to duel the First Sword if the situation became unfavorable.

So Young-woo found himself reassessing the martial prowess of the two brothers.

‘They might be stronger than they look.’

On the surface, Myeong-ho and Yoon-ho’s armament level was quite crude.

Myeong-ho’s weapon was clearly just a single sword he must have pulled from Sword Mountain, and Yoon-ho only had a one-handed axe.

Myeong-ae, who was sitting with them in the back seat, didn’t even have a weapon at all.

Early Bird, which was practically a mark of the strong, was nowhere to be found no matter where he looked.

‘But they could have awakened late. They must have realized that if they don’t become strong, their mother’s life would be in danger.’

Their mother was probably an extremely powerful motivation for growth.

Young-woo imagined the two brothers jumping into the fierce competition of the Exchange Office with their mother behind them.

Then he asked Myeong-ho.

“Have you met him before? The First Sword?”

“Huh? The First Sword?”

Myeong-ho made an expression as if it was an unexpected question, then soon shrugged his shoulders.

“Whew, not yet. I don’t want to meet him either. Besides, there’s only one First Sword per region… would we meet him that easily?”

Myeong-ho finished his words with a bland laugh, saying “Haha.”

Then Yoon-ho, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, instead threw a question at Young-woo.

“Then have you met one? A First Sword?”

“…”

Young-woo looked at the other’s blazing eyes, then shifted his gaze outside the window.

“No. If I had, I wouldn’t be alive like this. A First Sword would be the strongest person in that city, right?”

“Aw, how boring.”

Unlike Yoon-ho, who immediately snorted and turned his head back toward the front, Myeong-ho in the driver’s seat began stealing glances at Young-woo through the rearview mirror.

Thinking about it, it wouldn’t be strange if that uncomfortable guest in the back seat was a First Sword from another region.

His bizarre appearance that initially made him wonder if he was a mutant, his uncanny level of martial prowess, and most of all…

‘He had several Early Birds too.’

This was fairly solid evidence.

Unless he had killed other strong people and stolen them, how could he carry around several of those precious Early Birds?

‘So I might be… carrying a First Sword from somewhere right now?’

Right next to Mother, no less.

“Gasp.”

As Myeong-ho suddenly flinched, the steering wheel he was holding shook and the car swayed.

Clunk!

“Ah, what, why are you doing that.”

While Yoon-ho, who almost hit his head on the car window, grumbled, Young-woo, who had been looking at the sky outside the window, spoke up again.

“Um, the First Sword isn’t the immediate problem right now.”

“Huh? What do you mean…”

Myeong-ho checked Young-woo’s appearance in the rearview mirror, realized he was looking up at the sky, and also shifted his gaze upward through the driver’s seat window.

Then he saw it.

“Ugh!”

Countless blue light pillars were raining down over Mungyeong City visible in the distance.

* * *

Current time: 2:11 PM.

Young-woo checked the time on his wristwatch and tilted his head.

‘I thought 1 PM was when monsters appeared, but are there differences by region? Or…’

It could be that monsters that appeared about an hour ago still hadn’t been dealt with.

‘But there are too many light pillars for that to be the case. Is the First Sword here somewhat weak? No, then the 1st Generation should have died long ago.’

It was a phenomenon difficult for Young-woo to understand with his common sense.

Why weren’t the monsters being dealt with in a region where a 1st Generation First Sword was steadfastly holding out?

Moreover.

‘…Good Lord.’

As the distance between the vehicle and the city grew closer, he could even see red light pillars over there.

There were mutants still alive too.

‘What the hell is the First Sword doing and where?’

Young-woo furrowed his brow and criticized the Mungyeong First Sword who must be stuck somewhere.

This was a different situation from Gimcheon, where succession kept happening because there was no proper First Sword.

This time there was a First Sword capable of fighting mutants, but that person wasn’t fulfilling their role.

“…”

It was truly bizarre.

Even during this time, the SUV carrying Young-woo and the Jung family was racing toward the Mungyeong City entrance.

Vroooom…!

Amid the intensifying engine noise, Myeong-ho, gripping the steering wheel, looked behind through the rearview mirror and said.

“If we encounter monsters, we’ll have to get out and fight. It would be troublesome if the car gets damaged.”

This was clearly said with Young-woo in mind.

While Young-woo could run at speeds similar to a vehicle with just his two legs, the Jung family could not.

Especially for the two brothers who had a non-combatant mother with them, the vehicle was a resource as precious as life itself.

And Young-woo, understanding this well, nodded.

“Yes. That’s no problem. However…”

Young-woo paused slightly before continuing.

“What about you two? Have you fought monsters much?”

This was asked purely out of concern for Myeong-ae, who was relying on her two sons for survival, but Yoon-ho in the passenger seat took this as provocation and got angry.

“Why? Worried we can’t handle a monster properly by ourselves? We’ve gotten by just fine without your concern, so don’t worry.”

“…Yes. Then that’s fortunate.”

Young-woo stopped talking and closed his mouth.

Anyway, he would soon see directly what level the two brothers’ guard capability was at.

‘Day 2 monsters are on a different level from Day 1. If they haven’t raised their ability stats much, they might not be able to handle them.’

Myeong-ho and Yoon-ho aside, thinking that Myeong-ae, who was like a mother figure, could be slaughtered by monsters made him feel quite unpleasant.

But that didn’t mean he could keep staying with this family. Young-woo could only hope the two brothers were strong enough.

“Ah, already.”

Eventually, Myeong-ho’s disappointed voice flowed from the driver’s seat, and the vehicle came to a loud sudden stop.

Screeech!

“…Damn it. What the hell is that now.”

At the same time, Yoon-ho drew his weapon with a grave expression.

Young-woo slightly twisted his upper body to check the situation ahead.

Then he immediately saw Mungyeong City’s Day 2 monsters boasting massive silhouettes.

The identity of the beings standing while occupying the road leading to the city outskirts was precisely.

“Orcs…?”

As Young-woo unconsciously muttered, Myeong-ae beside him heard it and asked in a somewhat tense voice.

“Orc? What’s an orc?”

Then Yoon-ho in the passenger seat snatched up Young-woo’s response and answered instead.

“It’s just like a monster from games… don’t worry too much about it.”

Myeong-ho also shifted the gear to neutral and added a comment in a similar tone to his younger brother.

“They’re just mobs… it should be fine.”

But would it really be fine?

Having encountered a 2-meter-tall goblin as his first monster, Young-woo found it hard to agree with the two brothers’ opinion.

‘Even the goblin wasn’t easy… will orcs really feel like mobs?’

Of course, seeing goblins, trolls, and orcs appear first instead of dragons suggested that this world’s monster hierarchy wasn’t too different from people’s general perception.

However, the problem was that those monsters were no longer beings that existed only in games or novels.

Click.

Meanwhile, Yoon-ho was opening the passenger door while gripping his axe.

On the other hand, Myeong-ho waited while holding the steering wheel.

Young-woo asked with a puzzled tone.

“Aren’t you going out with your younger brother?”

“Ah… I wouldn’t be much help, and if something goes wrong, one of us needs to survive to take care of Mother.”

“I see…”

After hearing Myeong-ho’s explanation, Young-woo nodded.

In other words, the Jung Family’s only combatant was Yoon-ho alone, and Myeong-ho’s role was to reverse the car and leave the scene if his younger brother died while fighting in the vanguard.

‘It’s definitely advantageous to concentrate ability stats in one direction.’

Young-woo glanced at Myeong-ae beside him, then opened the back seat door and stepped outside.

He didn’t particularly like Yoon-ho, but he couldn’t just freeload, could he?

Step.

When Young-woo stepped barefoot onto the road, Yoon-ho sensed his presence and turned around.

“…What?”

“I’m here to help. This is your first time fighting those things, isn’t it?”

“You’re not doing this because you’re greedy for money, are you?”

Yoon-ho came at him aggressively as usual.

Of course, Young-woo could understand Yoon-ho’s position of needing to gather karma to protect his mother.

But Young-woo wasn’t a saint either, was he?

“If I was really greedy, I would have killed you all first. Then that car would be mine too. Stop pissing me off.”

When he looked at the SUV behind them with a cold expression, fear finally appeared on Yoon-ho’s face.

“Wh-what are you saying… that’s not human.”

“So you should act human too and show some courtesy. Don’t you understand the situation?”

Young-woo said this while looking over Yoon-ho’s shoulder.

The orcs that had been gathered in disorder were now forming ranks and walking toward them with heavy steps.

The distance between them was roughly a hundred meters.

‘What the hell are those things?’

He felt a strange sense of unease.

Despite clearly recognizing them, the way they maintained formation while carefully approaching was completely different from the previous monsters that had charged while screaming wildly.

“Those things are kind of…”

Just as Young-woo was about to warn Yoon-ho about something.

Dash!

Yoon-ho charged toward the orcs with fierce momentum.

“They’re moving! We need to hurry too…!”

In Yoon-ho’s mind, he thought he had to prevent the orcs from approaching the vehicle where his mother was.

-…

Meanwhile, the orc group showed no agitation despite seeing their opponent charging at them with an axe.

No, far from being agitated, rather…

Clank, clank!

They began pulling out large square shields they had been carrying on their backs and setting up their guard.

They looked like well-trained soldiers.

“Huh…?”

Yoon-ho’s eyes widened at their coordinated movement and he hesitated, while Young-woo, who had been following at an appropriate distance, also sensed something suspicious.

‘It feels like we’ve walked into a trap.’

And sure enough.

Blaaare!

One of the orcs on the far right of the formation blew a horn flute.

What followed was an ominous sound of cutting through air from the distance.

Whiiiiine…!

“Shit, what the hell is that sound?”

“…”

It took less than a second for Yoon-ho and Young-woo to directly confirm the source of the cutting sound.

About a dozen black dots appeared in the sky behind the orcs, then immediately shot down toward the two men.

Whiiiiiine!

Those were none other than spears.

‘So that was a request for artillery strike.’

Since the long spear shafts were already visible to his eyes, Young-woo hastily raised his black sword to prepare his defense.

Swoosh.

Young-woo’s current sense was 100.

Even though more than ten spears were pouring down over his head, his sense stat showed no change.

Since the opponent wasn’t specifically targeting Young-woo, Sense Steal didn’t activate.

‘Damn.’

The moment Young-woo realized this, he quickly raised his shield to cover his head.

He judged that with sense 100, he wouldn’t be able to deflect spear blades falling from high altitude.

Crash crash crash crash!

However, the orc side’s artillery strike had terrible accuracy, so most attacks hit the ground around Young-woo, with only one shot striking the outer surface of his shield.

Clang!

“Ugh…!”

Tremendous impact traveled up Young-woo’s arm and enveloped his entire body.

If he hadn’t raised his shield to block it, his body would have been pierced immediately.

Then what had happened to Yoon-ho, who didn’t even have a shield?

Glance.

When Young-woo raised his head, he could see Yoon-ho standing in an awkward posture about ten meters away.

His two legs planted on the ground were trembling violently.

And around him, spear shafts that had barely missed him were stuck piercing the ground.

In other words, Yoon-ho being alive and well right now was purely due to luck.

‘He’s incredibly lucky. But there will be another attack. And then I’ll be in danger too…’

Just as Young-woo thought he should clear out the orcs in front of him before the next artillery strike began, they made the first move.

Swish swish swish!

They all opened their guard formation and shouted like this.

-All units, charge!

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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